Lars von Trier's
Melancholia begins with a haunting prelude: a bride with a charred, tattered train; birds falling from the sky; a horse falling to the ground and a little planet pinging into a large blue sphere, like a sperm entering an ovum. Life is finished. Then the story begins. The first hour follows the utterly disastrous wedding reception of Justine (Kirsten Dunst), a debacle reminiscent of von Trier pal Thomas Vinterberg’s caustic
The Celebration. Part two sees Justine emerge from a catatonic depression to become a source of strength to her terrified sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) while a luminous giant asteroid glides toward Earth. The drama is clunky, but the visual experience paradoxically uplifting.